Warrior
For related articles, see Category:Warriors.'' The Warrior is a versatile melee class with the ability to both inflict and absorb large amounts of damage. Warriors compensate for their lack of magical abilities by having a wide range of melee abilities. As such, the warrior depends on rage instead of mana to use most of their abilities. The Warrior is a tank/DPS class, having one of two roles within a group. A Warrior can act as the tank, preventing other group members from gaining aggro, thus minimizing the damage that the others take. Also, especially with the proper placement of talent points and the appropriate gear, a Warrior can take the role of DPS — causing a large amount of melee damage. Warriors can use all types of weapons and armor except wands and relics. Background As long as war is waged on Azeroth, there will be men and woman who fight those wars. The warrior is no mere sword-swinger; he is a skilled combatant, combining strength of arm, knowledge of weaponry and practiced maneuvers to slice or bludgeon his foes into little red bits. The warrior is the most versatile of the combat classes, and he supplements his fighting prowess with the ability to rally his allies and spur them to victory, but not only can he rally his allies into victory; he can himself charge into the heart of the battle, take several lives and live to tell the tale. All races fight, and all races boast many warriors in their ranks. Warriors are common among dwarves, Forsaken, humans and orcs as well, less so among the other races. Masters of swords, spears, and weapons of all kinds, warriors share a common way of life on Azeroth. Using their abilities to deal pain and cause bloodshed, warriors are deadly adversaries and welcome friends in violent times (which seem to be all the time in recent decades). There has always been warriors in every race, from the murlocs to the tauren! Anyone willing to take up arms to defend their people can be classed as a warrior. Races The Warrior class can be played by the following races: Alliance * Dwarves * Gnomes * Humans * Night Elves * Draenei Horde * Orcs * Trolls * Undead * Tauren As of the Burning Crusade expansion, Blood elf players cannot be warriors. All though blood elf warriors do appear in game as NPCs (including a large number in Shadowmoon Valley). Blood elf warriors are a standard class for blood elves in the RPG. Some blood elves become warriors (or scouts or hunters) — especially those seeking to be spell breakers, demon hunters, and rangers. Starting Attributes Rage By default, a warrior's rage bar is empty. Warriors can gain rage by being struck in combat, dealing damage, drinking rage potions, or using certain Warrior Abilities. Most of their abilities require a certain amount of rage in order to be activated. When a Warrior exits combat, any left-over rage slowly decays until the bar returns to empty. The rate at which rage decays can be controlled through talents. A warrior's rage bar will drop to 0 immediately if he switches his stance. At level 20, the passive ability Stance Mastery allows him to retain 10 rage through a stance change, and the Tactical Mastery talent increases this to 25 rage. Warriors need to be in combat or use a rage-generating ability to generate rage. The longer the battle, the more rage a warrior can accumulate. This often leads the warrior to the strategy of "filling up" his rage bar on a weaker foe before moving on to a more powerful enemy. A warrior with a full rage bar can quickly unload a large amount of damage. Stances The warrior has different stances for different situations. Which stance to use will also be determined by the Warrior's talents. *Battle Stance: The standard starting stance for all Warriors. A balance of offensive and defensive abilities. (-20% Threat Generated) *Defensive Stance: As it suggests, more defensive oriented and fewer offensive damaging moves. Best used when playing in the main tank role (-10% Damage Received, -10% Damage Inflicted, +30% Threat Generated). *Berserker Stance: All out attack with little regard to the Warrior's own health. Best used when somebody else is tanking and you need full-on DPS (+3% Crit, +10% Damage Received, -20% Threat Generated). Some Warrior Abilities are limited by which stance you are in, so choose wisely! Remember that your rage is reduced to 10 whenever switching stances unless you have Tactical Mastery. Abilities :Main article: Warrior Abilities The Warrior has various abilities based on the current battle stance or usable with any stance. Talents Warrior talents are split into three trees: Arms A general mix of talents comprised mostly of utility and offensive abilities. The Arms talent tree is capped by the Endless Rage ability, which causes Rage gained from all damage caused to be increased by 25%. The Arms tree mainly enhances burst damage emphasizing powerful (usually slow) two-handed weapons with use of Mortal Strike. Arms warriors usually prefer two handed weapons with high top end damage, as this will increase the potential of the Mortal Strike ability. Fury Primarily offensive, the Fury talent tree is capped by the Rampage ability, though the tree really relies on Flurry, and thus critical strikes, to create most of its damage. Fury warriors usually prefer two one handed weapons, with similar priorities as a rogue in terms of stats and weapon damage. For this reason, Fury warriors are sometimes nicknamed "Rogues in plate". Protection This tree is all about the proud tradition of swashbuckling: Boastful and taunting, this warrior has specialized in fighting with "sword and board", that is, a weapon in the main hand and a shield in the off-hand. The talents of the protection tree allows you even greater offensive and defensive advantages of this fighting style, allowing you to use the shield as a potent and crippling weapon. Protection talents also allows you to build aggro faster and to greatly enhance your survivability. These abilities are ideal for warriors in a tanking role. In PvP the greater survivability and added capabilities of the protection warrior compensates for the slower damage output. Protection warriors are often referred to as tanks. Talent calculators can be found at WoW Den's Talent Calculator, WorldofWar.se, WoWHead.com. Further Information See List of warriors for important NPC warriors, and warriors from lore. See Starting a Warrior for some advice when starting out. See Warrior races for information on warriors by race. See Warrior sets for information about Warrior-specific set items. See Warrior PvP for advice on playing nicely with others. See Warrior Tactics for more general class advice. See Warrior Twinking guide for details on making a warrior twink. See Warrior Instance Grouping Guide for tips in Instances. See Sun Eater vs. King's Defender for an answer to the very common question, which is best? External links *Warrior Guides for advanced warrior topics (although some parts are outdated) *Warrior Blog *The Care and Feeding of Warriors - weekly warrior feature at WoW Insider it:Guerriero Category:Classes Category:WoW Classes Category:RPG Classes Category:Core Classes Category:NPC Classes Category:Warriors